Question For Those That Watch Movies/TV Through Your Two Channel System

The best movie/TV sound I ever had was two-channel: Quad ESL 57s, Townsend supertweets, REL subs, with an ARC Ref III pre, and VT100 amplifier.  It didn't play loud, but the sheer intelligibility of dialogue and realistic 3D soundstage more than made up for it.  There was no reason to add a center channel. 

My tastes run to classic Hollywood, indy, and foreign films. If you love blockbuster, spectacle type movies, then it makes sense to go multi-channel.  Efficient speakers, like Tektons or Klipsch, will give you the effortless dynamics of a movie theater with reasonably powered amps.  

FWIW, my main rig is in a dedicated listening room with only one chair.  I have a 7.2.4 Atmos setup, but my AV pre/pro’s LR outputs feed the HT bypass inputs on my separate stereo preamp.  I sacrifice nothing with my stereo listening this way.  Since I only have one chair in there, I don’t necessarily need a center channel speaker, but I decided to keep it nevertheless.  My stereo speakers are 4ft into the room and the center image is so good, so holographic, that it seems to float on its own detached from the screen.  Technically, the phantom center sounds better, but I prefer the dialogue to seem more like it comes from the actors’ mouths on screen.  Without the Center speaker, it sounds like the actors are a few feet in front of the TV in my room with me.
Now, I have a second system in the family room where there is also TV.  I had the opportunity to use an older AVR there and set up surround sound.  I chose not to and, like you’re considering, purchased a nice stereo integrated instead.  I don’t regret it at all.  To me, it’s better to do stereo well than mediocre surround, even for movies and TV.  I find that a good full range set up with adequate subwoofers is really what “wows” me when watching movies.  So I focused on getting good full range stereo in that room.  

Erik, perhaps I should have explained myself better. For two channel hi fidelity listening a center channel is detrimental. The only time it has merit is when the two channels are so far apart that you wind up with the proverbial "hole in the middle." Klipsch had this problem with K horns as they had to go into the corners and were frequently too far apart to image the center. Thus, he came up with the concept of the center channel in the late 50's. Now, if a good two channel system can image a singer to the center it can certainly image a speaking voice to the center. The problem comes when you are sitting off axis out of the listening position. The center image becomes blurred and the voice may or may not appear to come from the center with your eyes closed. But, as soon as you open your eyes the voice will snap right to the image, a trick our brains do automatically for us. 
In short, all these extra channels are just the audio manufacturer's way of trying to shove more speakers and amplifiers down our throats.
Erik, if you want to have a video game hi fi that is your prerogative. I do have a 5.2 system. it is up in my exercise room.